We're the 'lucky ones'

"I knew other people who were building out there and they'd started to pull out of deals with Randal," says Prue Walker.
Randal Carey's company, Carey Builders is now in liquidation, leaving a host of subcontractors out of pocket and up to fifteen people with unfinished homes. Two Alice Springs residents who signed contracts with builder Randal Carey have spoken out about their experiences.

Randal Carey's company, Carey Builders is now in liquidation, leaving a host of subcontractors out of pocket and up to fifteen people with unfinished homes.

Two Alice Springs residents who signed contracts with builder Randal Carey have spoken on 783 Mornings about their experiences.

John Stafford signed up for a house and land package under Frampton's 'New Homes' scheme at the end of 2008. The builder for the project was Randal Carey.

John says he's 'one of the lucky ones', despite being out of pocket to the tune of $30,000.

"I have a house that I have rented out," says John. "There are a lot of people that have paid a lot of money and their houses are far from being completed."

John says the trouble started last year when the completion date for the house was overdue but there was still work to be done. At this stage, most of the work had already been paid for, despite the fact that it was incomplete.

"We only needed to pay another 5%, yet we estimated there was about $70,000 worth of work to be done."

Carey negotiated a new completion date with Mr Stafford but that date came and went.

John says that unpaid contractors then began removing materials from the building site.

"It's very common, I know of a number of places that happened to," says John.

"Certainly at the start, [Carey] was using local contractors...they weren't getting paid, so they were going in and taking pieces out of the house because they weren't getting paid."

Prue Walker signed up for a house and land package at the same time as John Stafford but says she was lucky to have pulled out of the deal before she had provided a deposit.

"I knew other people who were building [at Northside Estate] and they'd started to pull out of the deals with Randal," says Prue.

"Then I got a phone call from my bank, they'd been speaking to my conveyancer who'd obviously passed on that there were quite a lot of concerns going on around town about Randal Carey."

Prue says she contacted Framptons twice with her concerns but was told not to worry.

She has since arranged to have her house completed by another builder.

Earlier in the week Framptons spoke out about their involvement with Carey on the 783 Mornings Show.

Sales Director David Forrest says the company facilitated introductions between Randal and people looking to build homes and that Randal's actions are 'reprehensible.'

'The stress that he caused resulted in the loss of the personnel that were in that division of our business and consequently the winding down of that service.' says Forrest.

'[He's] gone broke, and let down us and quite a number of other people. I think his behaviour is absolutely reprehensible.'

Sub-contractor Tony Bandera says that he and others who were owed money by Carey 'got to an amount of around $700,000 that was owed' when they met in July last year.

'He contracted me to do a job in the Carmichael Estate to build a swimming pool for a client of his. I gave him a bill and he procrastinated in paying it for about 2-3 months.'

'I finished the pool January 2009 and I put a bill in and I couldn't get any money til June and I smelt a rat by this stage.'

Bandera did get payment eventually, and like John Stafford, calls himself 'one of the lucky ones.'

"I got to the stage where I got a judgment against him and I petitioned the bankruptcy company...and finally I got my money."